June 22, 2011 | Graham

Now I have some more free advice from him sourced from Minyanville, who provided the handy info-graphic at the end of this post.

The graphic compares Amazon and WalMart – two gorillas in the international retail world.

A few things struck me.

WalMart is far larger than Amazon

Amazon is predicted to be larger than WalMart in 2024, but to be much smaller until the 2020s

WalMart is hitting back by going online

WalMart is becoming an international bricks and mortar retailer, while Amazon is already an international online retailer

As you can’t take projections 10 or 15 years out too seriously, what this suggests is that WalMart isn’t calling out for teacher to come and see off the intruder, it’s getting out there and looking to match it online and leverage its offline business model in markets where neither have a footprint.

Excellent, the comparison shows how deep the paranoia is about ebusiness. It would be inspiring if traditional retail business engaged realistically with the issues rather than crying wolf or asking for over regulation of emerging competitors. If you look carefully you can see your future business model.

I heard Gerry Harvey today say,”All we want is a level playing field.”Couldn’t all the manufacturers who either went broke or moved off shore have argued the same during the period economic rationalism? So the retail sector is a special case unlike the manufacturing sector?

Rather than fighting trend,perhaps Gerry could add some competition and integrity to internet retailing.People will always pay a bit more for good service and reputation.